Shwe Job: Protecting Garment Workers Through COVID-19

Myanmar's garment industry is one of the country's largest employers, and COVID-19 disrupted it through factory closures, cancelled orders and infection risk on crowded production lines. Shwe Job, an app created by SMART Myanmar and GIZ to teach factory workers about occupational safety, health and their rights under labour law, had a role to play.

Together with its partners, Shwe Job wanted to engage key stakeholders on how the pandemic was changing industry guidelines and workers' rights, at a time when gathering people in a room was impossible and the workers themselves were hard to reach.

The strategy was to convene rather than broadcast. Ruder Finn Era supported Shwe Job and its partner GIZ FABRIC to organise an online roundtable bringing together partner NGOs and relevant local labour and industry associations, so the discussion carried the weight of the sector rather than a single organisation's view.

The roundtable ran first on Zoom, then was posted to the Shwe Job Facebook page and promoted with paid support so that the workers who use the app, not just the officials who set policy, could hear the conversation. Media were briefed on the outcomes, turning a virtual panel into coverage across print, online and broadcast.